I'm wanting to get into a bit of nightriding and am really interested in Nightlightning's iblaasts.I can't choose between the mini-blaast or the iblaast 2.I know the mini has the same output, but a smaller beam.What's peoples opinions on these two?

gtrev wrote:I'm wanting to get into a bit of nightriding and am really interested in Nightlightning's iblaasts.I can't choose between the mini-blaast or the iblaast 2.I know the mini has the same output, but a smaller beam.What's peoples opinions on these two?

err actually it's a three way - mini-blasst (three leds same as iblasst2 but in small size) and quad-blasst (which is mini-blasst size but 4 leds rather than three)

performance wise the iblasst2 and mini are the same - just more compact and lighter , I really can't think of any reason you'd want to go with the iblasst2 (indeed I'm surprised eric still offers it - guess he's got a supply of the housings still so why not).

The weight diff is enough for me to notice it on the helmet - I'd go the mini

quad blasst is 30% more light (but also 30% less battery runtime on full) - of course if you throttle it back to the same output as a mini it's the same (indeed in theory a tiny bit more efficient). My theory is the price diff was trivial and since I already ride with a 4400mAh battery the quad made sense - if you want to cut weight/price and run the 2200mAh battery the mini is the only sensible solution (unless you only ever ride for <2 hrs)

gtrev wrote:I'm wanting to get into a bit of nightriding and am really interested in Nightlightning's iblaasts.I can't choose between the mini-blaast or the iblaast 2.I know the mini has the same output, but a smaller beam.What's peoples opinions on these two?

err actually it's a three way - mini-blasst (three leds same as iblasst2 but in small size) and quad-blasst (which is mini-blasst size but 4 leds rather than three)

performance wise the iblasst2 and mini are the same - just more compact and lighter , I really can't think of any reason you'd want to go with the iblasst2 (indeed I'm surprised eric still offers it - guess he's got a supply of the housings still so why not).

The weight diff is enough for me to notice it on the helmet - I'd go the mini

quad blasst is 30% more light (but also 30% less battery runtime on full) - of course if you throttle it back to the same output as a mini it's the same (indeed in theory a tiny bit more efficient). My theory is the price diff was trivial and since I already ride with a 4400mAh battery the quad made sense - if you want to cut weight/price and run the 2200mAh battery the mini is the only sensible solution (unless you only ever ride for <2 hrs)

Danose, I almost always find your posts informative and useful (the fashion tips for roadies I pass on but thanks anyway ).Wonder why couldn't they put a short summary like that on night lightening website?

nostromo wrote:Wonder why couldn't they put a short summary like that on night lightening website?

in theory there's a new website just around the corner - so hopefully it'll cover this stuff

oh - other common question is "all-in-one vs DCM vs inline" - my old comet pro was a DCM (only option on them) and in my opinion if you're ONLY using it for biking go all-in-one, much less clutter (and gives you the option of no hydration pack for those quick blats up the hills with just the battery in your back pocket - and of course for roadieing).

DCM is great if you're planning on grabbing the headband kit to use it for rogaining/adventure racing (where you'll be wanting to dim it every time you stop to map read), but for straight trail running I'd still go all-in-one (I use the old blaast for this and only time I ever dim mine is to stop blinding people coming the other way)

When I went around to buy my one the woman (sorry can't recall her name) of the partnership told me that they generally recommend the iblaast2 for forest condtions (ie; woodhill, rotorua, wairakei) as the slightly more focussed beam of the mini can be a bit intense, ie; bouncing back off trees. Therefore I went with the mini as it will hopefully be better on open country like port hills tracks, even though I will use it in forest some of the time.

pedalingkiwi wrote:When I went around to buy my one the woman (sorry can't recall her name) of the partnership told me that they generally recommend the iblaast2 for forest condtions (ie; woodhill, rotorua, wairakei) as the slightly more focussed beam of the mini can be a bit intense, ie; bouncing back off trees. Therefore I went with the mini as it will hopefully be better on open country like port hills tracks, even though I will use it in forest some of the time.

HTH

I'm pretty sure you can get wide optics for the mini (same as you can get narrow 10deg optics for the endurenz/blasst/iblaast/iblasst2 as well as wide 25 deg ones) - when I got mine they asked which I'd prefer and I spec'd narrow (since I want a narrow beam for roadie descents).

My endurenz/blaast has the wides (great for running - gives a nice wash at my feet for rock avoidance) since it was originally spec'd as a climbing/additional light to my old comet pro (back when it was an endurenz and pumped out a massive 270 lumens - seemed heaps back then)

of course you can always just dim it a bit in tight/slow/wooded stuff anyway - I find bounceback off our greywacke shingle is a bigger issue (much better with the new colour cast of the crees - the seouls being so white/blue could be really bad - made riding up huntsbury painful)